In many professions, including graphic design, architecture, communications, accounting, engineering and video editing, the idea of two or more monitors being driven from one machine is not a new one. While in the past, it has meant multiple graphics adapters and specialized software, it was common for engineers to have at least two, if not more, displays to enhance productivity.[6]

Multi-monitor gaming/simulation is also becoming more common; however, the hardware expense can be a limiting factor.[7] The rising popularity of using multiple monitors to game is leading to websites being introduced which allow for smooth and easy configuration from outside sources from the original one screen option given by developers to a new multiple screen option.[8]

Early versions of DOOM permitted a three-monitor display mode, using three networked machines to show left, right, and center views.[9]

More recently, games have used multiple monitors to show a more absorbing interface to the player or to display game information. Various flight simulators can use these monitor setups to create an artificial cockpit with more realistic interfaces.[10] Others such as Supreme Commander and World in Conflict can use an additional monitor for a large scale map of the battlefield.[11]

A large number of older games support multi-monitor set-ups by treating the total screen space as effectively a single monitor to the game, a technique known as spanning. Many games without inherent multi-monitor support such as Guild Wars and World of Warcraft can also be made to run in multi-monitor set-ups, with this technique or in conjunction with addition of third-party software[12] A larger list of games that support dual/multi-screen modes is available at WSGF.[13]

As arcade technology entered the 1990s, larger cabinets were being built which in turn also housed larger monitors such as the 3 28" screen version of Namco's Ridge Racer from 1993. Although large screen technology such as CRT rear projection was beginning to be used more often, multi-monitor games were still occasionally released, such as Sega's F355 Challenge from 1999 which again used 3 28" monitors for the sit-down cockpit version. The most recent use of a multi-monitor setup in arcades occurred with Taito's Dariusburst: Another Chronicle game, released in Japan in December 2010[14] and worldwide the following year.[15] It uses 2 32" LCD screens and an angled mirror to create a seamless widescreen effect.

Ordinary software does not need special support for multiple screens even if it uses the graphic accelerator. At the usual application level, multihead is presented just as a single larger monitor spanning over all screens. However, some special approaches may increase the multithread performance.

With multiple monitors present, each screen will have its own graphics buffer. One possible scenario for programming is to present to OpenGL or DirectX a continuous, virtual frame buffer in which the OS or graphics driver writes out to each individual buffer. With some graphics cards, it's possible to enable a mode called "horizontal span" which accomplishes this. The OpenGL/DirectX programmer then renders to a very large frame buffer for output. In practice, and with recent cards, this mode is being phased out because it does not make very good use of GPU parallelism and does not support arbitrary arrangements of monitors (they must all be horizontal). A more recent technique uses the wglShareLists feature of OpenGL to share data across multiple GPUs, and then render to each individual monitor's frame buffer.[16]